Tag Archives: The Problem With Parole – The New York Times

“Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called on the State Legislature to make changes that would help those in custody for parole violations, such as abolishing money bail for people accused of misdemeanors, eliminating state supervision fees for people on parole and reviewing how child support is calculated for people incarcerated for more than six months.

But the Columbia study calls on the Legislature to do a lot more. It recommends that the state adopt several common-sense reforms, most of which have already shown promise in other states. These include: adopting a system of graduated sanctions and rewards, instead of automatically dumping people into jail for minor infractions; capping jail terms for minor parole violations; requiring a judicial hearing before parole officers can jail people accused of technical violations; shortening parole terms for people who stay out of trouble for specified periods of time; and using the savings reaped from cutting the prison population to expand education, substance abuse and housing opportunities for parolees, who need considerably more help than they’re getting to forge stable lives in their communities.”

David Lindsay Jr. Hamden, CT Pending Approval
Young men going back to jail for small infractions of probation is also a serious problem in Connecticut. I allowed a 30 year old ex con, black man to become my handyman. He had spent 6 years in jail for breaking and entering when he was about 20. Two years ago, a friend of his convinced him he could skip his parol meeting, which was onerous, and he was dumb enough to take the bad advice. He was back to jail for 17 months, for not showing up for his parole meeting. I was shocked. This appears to be a form of jim crow. It also interrupted the young man’s attempt to succeed in society with a variety of part time jobs. Most of his time in back in jail he watched TV and worked out a little. He got no job training or education.
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David Lindsay Jr. is the author of “The Tay Son Rebellion,” and blogs at TheTaySonRebellion.com and InconvenientNews.wordpress.com